Contents this month
Project news
The Local Strategic Partnership for the London Borough of Richmond
upon Thames is undertaking a large and well thought-out consultation
to feed into their Community Plan for 2007. They are asking questions
around the five themes
- Greener and cleaner
- Healthier communities
- Safer and Stronger
- Children and young people
- Vibrant and prosperous.
The consultation has a very high profile in the borough and a lot
of effort has been put into making everyone aware that it is happening
to ensure that the response rate is as high as possible, and making
it visually attractive and accessible. A separate version of the
consultation has been created for young people, addressing the same
five themes but with more emphasis on issues of direct interest
to them.
The consultation is an excellent example of the way in which an
internet consultation can be used to empower local people by involving
them in the shaping of their community.
Policing Priorities for the Metropolitan Police
Over the last four years the Metropolitan Police Authority and Metropolitan
Police Service (MPA/MPS) have conducted a consultation with individuals
and community groups in London on policing priorities, which we
have run on their behalf.
The results of the consultation for 2006 have now been analysed
and will feed into the planning process for the policing priorities
for 2007/09. The results will help to inform the MPS Corporate Strategy
2007/10.
The next stage of this process, which is about to start, will involve
an internal consultation whereby senior officers within the Met
police will be given an opportunity to respond to comments made
during the external consultation, and outline how they are currently
addressing issues raised, and give possible solutions for the future.
The internal consultation will be complete by Christmas and the
final analysis of the overall integrated process will be available
by March 2007.
The process used here illustrates how several stages of consultation
can be used together to draw different types of stakeholders into
the decision making process.
Recent rulings by the European Court of Justice have led to a broader
application of the definition of waste, leading to the conclusion
that more things are waste and remain waste for longer.
This has had an impact on the use of compost made from certain
types of waste because people have been unsure of when the compost
could be considered to be fully recovered and no longer subject
to regulations limiting its use. WRAP (the Waste & Resources
Action Programme) and the Environment Agency have produced a new
Quality Protocol for compost in consultation with industry and other
regulatory stakeholders. The Quality Protocol should provide a formalised
quality control procedure for the production of quality compost
from source segregated bio-waste.
Before the Quality Protocol is implemented, WRAP and the EA are
widening their consultation on it, using a combination of an online
consultation and a one-day workshop. The online consultation runs
until 4th December and so far 369 people have registered. Who would
have thought compost could be so interesting!